Care For Your Body Instead of Trying to Control It

How much time and energy do you devote to the weight struggle? How many of the thoughts you think each day have to do with how much you weigh, what size clothes you wear, or what you should or shouldn’t eat? How much energy is left over for you to actually enjoy your life?

Diet Mentality has become a way of life for so many people that they seem to run on autopilot with each day being a repeat of the same body hate and food policing as the day before. What these people have forgotten is that this lifestyle is a choice and that it doesn’t have to be this way if they don’t want it to continue. Some may choose to hold on tightly to their self-defeating daily rituals, because they have built their identity around them. This is what they have come to know and as sh*tty as it feels, it also feels oddly safe and familiar.

There is however, a growing population of people who are becoming tired of the daily routine of self-created pain and are ready to make a significant change, even if it feels scary to try something new. Are you one of these people I’m talking about? Are you ready to swap the diet mentality way of life for something richer and more fulfilling? Let me share with you the first step I took in making this swap in my own life: Caring for your body instead of trying to control it.

Any time you think with a Diet Mentality Mindset, you are focused on looking good. You want dramatic results in lightning-fast speed and your actions will be based on controlling your body with some kind of diet plan and/or strenuous exercise routine. Any progress you make is fleeting, because you can’t sustain these controlling actions long-term and back to square one you go.

When you think with a Wellbeing Mindset, you’re focused on feeling good. You understand that there is no race and there is no finish line. There’s only this life and how well you can live it. With that in mind, you know how important it is to care for you body, so that you can use it to experience all of the pleasures life has to offer. Each day, you show appreciation for your body by providing it with adequate sleep, energizing exercise and stretching, hydration, and proper nourishment, taking good care not to overload your system with extra fuel it doesn’t need. Caring for your body is an act of love; and besides feeling good, you also look good, because your body is healthy and you radiate the inner glow of someone who genuinely likes themselves.

That’s the key really, liking yourself. Diet Mentality tells you that you have to be thin to be likable, to be lovable even. That’s such a horrible lie we’ve been led to believe. “Thin” is not a character quality, like being kind, or generous, or lovable. You are already lovable; and when you decide to believe that about yourself, you will find it very easy to care for your body. And a body that is well cared for makes a lovely home for you to live in.